Background

A luxury bankruptcy home in La Jolla once featured in TV commercials has been sold for almost a third of its original asking price of $45 million, based on details from the property's listing agent on Wednesday.

Beverly Hills-based Bob Hurwitz said "The Razor" property, considered by designers as an architectural marvel, has closed escrow. The buyer, an East Coaster, paid $14.1 million in cash, added Hurwitz, of the Hurwitz James Company. More details are expected to be released on Thursday.

Public records show about $34 million was spent building the 11,000-square-foot estate, which has never been occupied. Construction began in 2002 and was completed in 2008. The original sale price was set at $45 million but has consistently been slashed according to the market and even more when it became a bankruptcy property.

The Razor house, 9826 La Jolla Farms Road, was originally set to be sold at a Sept. 27 auction, but that was canceled because there were no qualified bidders.

The auction was then rescheduled to Nov. 10, with the starting bid shaved to $13.9 million from the $16 million set in September. The property again could not be sold because none of the bidders came close to what the bank would accept, at least $17 million, according to the listing company.

The oceanfront home is the bankruptcy estate of Jimmy Donald Cooksey Jr., according to public records. It is the work of San Diego-based architectural designer Wallace E. Cunningham, named one of Architectural Digest's Top 100 Designers.